Mbarara. A 24-year-old graduate of Makerere University, Mr Innocent Tugume, frustrated by the huge number of youth unemployment has embarked on a single-handed demonstration.

Mr Tugume has decided to ride a bicycle for 380 kilometres from Mitooma District in Western Uganda to Kampala city to highlight the crisis of joblessness in the country. Mr Tugume graduated a year ago with a degree in Environmental Science from Makerere University. The youth said he started his journey from his village Kashenshero, in Mitooma. He has dubbed the expedition, “Ride Demonstration Against Youth Unemployment Crisis in Uganda”.

Looking for solutionsMr Tugume says after reaching Kampala, he will call a conference of all unemployed youth across the country at city square to thrash out a solution to the problem.

Youth unemployment, he said, has reached an unbearable level and it was high time youth found the way forward. About 62 per cent of youths are unemployed in the country, with thousands churned out yearly by universities.The government has in the recent past been promoting sciences, in the belief that the practical nature of the courses, will enable youths create instead of look for jobs.

The government has also earmarked about Shs256 billion for the Youth Fund to ease unemployment, but Mr Tugume said the initiative “is a total sandwich to the minds of youth”.